curiously_cora | Out of Phase: Artefact discovered

There were several well trekked paths and one newly forged one, leading away from most of the huts created by human feet. And another created by smaller feet. There was one bunch of flowers, fourteen individual red and yellow flowers picked and left on a rock which was not particularly interesting. There was one noisy small blonde human. And then there was the boar minding its own business until something strange happened.

A pulse of bright white light came out of the jungle startling it, screeching the boar ran angrily towards the source. Crashing into something metallic, the boar grunted and gruffed at it turning as it shuffled in the dirt. The metallic thing was broken into pieces, snuffling at it the boar mouthed at pieces before swallowing a couple of smaller pieces. Making an unpleased noise it tried to cough, trampling the artefact and kicking pieces of it further away. Stumbling forward it dragged some pieces alongside with it as it carried on its grumpy journey.

The boar didn't know what it had done. And it wouldn't for long. Boars didn't tend to last very long on the island. Not with so many hungry mouths to feed.

And the small blonde human? She'd disappeared without trace.

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"Yeah, maybe avoid the leaning?" I suggest, chancing a glance at my computer screen only to notice that she's not being picked up by the webcam. Thinking the angle's maybe just off because she fell out of frame, I lower the screen a bit.

No dice.

Well, that's not promising. Is this a hallucination? A dream? Why can I see her, but the camera doesn't? Maybe--

"--stand over there," I say abruptly, pointing to the far wall. "And describe what this thing looked like, exactly. Nothing cutesy, I need details."

"I know it's just hard not doing something you're not really thinking about doing it. It's just a habit I guess," Coraline said, making a face. She tried hard not to think about leaning or doing normal stuff, at least that took her mind off her stomach and being hungry and thirsty.

Coraline looked up, startled from her daydream of a cheesburger before nodding and following his finger. Wandering over Coraline stood where she was told and tried to think about what it looked like.

"It was sort of smooth, everywhere and it didn't seem to have any buttons or anything. Flat on the bottom, rounder near the top. And when I put my hand on it, something pressed inward like a switch." Coraline said making a face like she knew she wasn't really supposed to touch anything with switches.

"Have you seriously not learned the 'don't touch the big red button' lesson yet?"

She's a kid. I should cut her some slack. But she's also haunting me in my house because she poked her nose into something she clearly shouldn't've, so some level of discipline's gotta be expected. She's old enough to know better and young enough to still not care. It's a bad combination.

I'm no great artist, but I've got experience drawing out tech. Even if I generally work pretty intuitively, sometimes it helps to get things laid out on paper before you start building, and I draw up a rough sketch of what she's described before I hold up my notebook.

"Something like this?" I ask, glancing back down at my computer screen. The paper's visible -- and so is my arm -- but Coraline's still not showing up despite definitely being in plain view of the camera.

"No, it's Explorer 101. If it's a mysterious, unexplained object then don't touch it or any buttons. But that's only a rule if it's humming or pointy, it's usually the humming and pointy mysterious objects that are dangerous." Coraline said, making a face. Coraline knew she shouldn't have touched it but she also couldn't help who she was. She was curious, it was her fatal flaw. All she had wanted to know was what it did.

Coraline sighed, waiting as Peter began to draw something. Coraline fidgeted waiting by the wall before bounding over to look at the sketch. Coraline made an excited noise before pointing to it.

"Yep, that's it. See, that bit goes um- I think it goes there." Coraline said pointing. "And the bit where the switch was- was here."

"You just said this thing was humming. Did you fail Explorer 101?"

I make the adjustments to the drawing per her suggestions, grabbing an eraser to move around the bit she said was in the wrong spot. I'm in the middle of retracing a line when Martha bounds through the half-opened door -- and right through Coraline, like she doesn't see her at all.

Sooo... Not just the computer, then. God, am I going crazy? I pinch the bridge of my nose, dropping pen and paper to push Martha away from the doohickey. It's one thing for me to be handling radiation, it's another for a dog to be.

"Hey, get your nose out of-- Sorry," I add to Coraline. "We're not really used to-- Has anyone else seen you?"

"It only started to hum after I touched it and you know- might have accidentally turned it on." Coraline replied, she was curious but she wasn't that stupid. Although she supposed she had accidentally killed herself with this machine so maybe she was a little stupid. Okay, a lot stupid.

Coraline turned her head at the sound, letting out a shriek as the dog went straight through her. So, so gross.

"It's okay Mister Bobo is like that, he's my dog. Cat just usually sits and glares at him, he's very... opinionated even if he can't talk anymore." Coraline said, shivering at the idea of anyone going through her. It was weird. "Um, no? I mean, not yet at least. I keep trying to talk to people but they just ignore me."

Still pushing away a very excitable Martha, I keep an eye on Coraline. No one else has seen her. Great. More evidence that I am losing my mind, except--

"Wait. No one else has seen you, but has anyone else found part of the device?"

"Um, no I don't think so. I mean, I haven't noticed anyone carrying anything and saying 'my precious' in a really creepy voice or how exactly would I know if someone has one?" Coraline said, thinking about that for a second before brightening up. "Maybe if I go back and explore maybe I'll see someone."

"No," I say quickly, holding out a hand to stop her. "Stay here. At least 'til I figure out why I can see you. For reasons other than I'm possibly crazy.."

I look at the device, then push my glasses back up my nose to peer over at Coraline, frowning, realizing I've seen these kind of readings before. Not identical, mind you, but it's the kind of stuff you get after a temporal displacement.

"...hey, are you wearing a watch?"

If she is and it's still working, I might be able to test a hypothesis.

Coraline barely heard the last bit but she did hear some of it and looked at him like he was a really, really dumb grown up. Awesome but dumb.

"Mister Parker if you were going to imagine someone would you really have chosen me?" Coraline asked curiously, making a face. Coraline bugged most of her teachers enough during classes, she doubted they wanted her to bug them some more in their imaginations as well. "Um, yes? Why?"

"Good," I say, ignoring her logic, 'cause it's my logic, too. I wouldn't be hallucinating her. Period. Gotta work under the assumption that this is actually happening or else I'm not going to be much use at all, right?

Not that that would be any different from the rest of the past three years.

Focus.

"Tell me when the second hand hits twelve," I tell her, looking at my own watch. "I wanna test something."

"I mean, I'd imagine you but that's because you're my favourite... math teacher." Coraline said as she lifted up her wrist, turning the slightly too large watch around until she could see it. Which was weird, she didn't know why she could touch herself but nothing else. Stupid island, stupid being a ghost. "Um, now."

"Tell me when thirty seconds are up," I say, restarting my watch at her word. If my hunch proves accurate, then at least I'll have a basis on which to work from. "You like math that much, huh?"

"I like science and you sort of have to like math to like it. It's like um a boy band, there's always one of them that you don't like as much as the others but you still like the music." Coraline said, watching the time as it went by. "Now. The time I mean."

Out of Phase: Artefact discovered

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